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Retirement Benefits: Discrepancies in Benefits Paid by the Railroad Retirement Board for SSA

HRD-86-3 Published: Feb 05, 1986. Publicly Released: Feb 05, 1986.
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Highlights

GAO surveyed 17 different types of data exchanges between the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) and the Social Security Administration (SSA), focusing on the benefit payments that RRB made on behalf of SSA.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Social Security Administration The Commissioner of Social Security and the Chairman, RRB, should develop an interagency agreement by March 31, 1986, defining the responsibilities of each agency in reconciling CSAUDIT discrepancies and a timetable for reconciling the discrepancies.
Closed – Not Implemented
SSA indicated no action will be taken since it feels it will not be cost effective.
Railroad Retirement Board The Commissioner of Social Security and the Chairman, RRB, should develop an interagency agreement by March 31, 1986, defining the responsibilities of each agency in reconciling CSAUDIT discrepancies and a timetable for reconciling the discrepancies.
Closed – Not Implemented
RRB indicates no action will be taken since it feels it will not be cost effective.
Social Security Administration The Commissioner of Social Security and the Chairman, RRB, should make specific resource commitments for reconciling CSAUDIT discrepancies.
Closed – Implemented
SSA has made resource commitments to resolve current CSAUDIT discrepancies.
Railroad Retirement Board The Commissioner of Social Security and the Chairman, RRB, should make specific resource commitments for reconciling CSAUDIT discrepancies.
Closed – Implemented
RRB has made resource commitments to address current CSAUDIT discrepancies.
Social Security Administration The Commissioner of Social Security and the Chairman, RRB, should reconcile CSAUDIT discrepancies on a continuing and timely basis.
Closed – Implemented
An agreement has been reached between SSA and RRB to handle current CSAUDIT discrepancies.
Railroad Retirement Board The Commissioner of Social Security and the Chairman, RRB, should reconcile CSAUDIT discrepancies on a continuing and timely basis.
Closed – Implemented
An agreement has been reached between SSA and RRB to handle current CSAUDIT discrepancies.
Railroad Retirement Board The Chairman, RRB, should require staff to develop written procedures for processing CSAUDIT discrepancies.
Closed – Implemented
Formal written procedures for processing discrepancies were developed and incorporated in the RRB Retirement Claims Manual.
Railroad Retirement Board The Chairman, RRB, should assign responsibility for strengthening internal controls, particularly controls aimed at preventing misplaced files and promoting payment accuracy, to the new Bureau of Quality Assurance.
Closed – Implemented
The Associate Executive Director for Retirement Claims, RRB, initiated a review of internal controls for processing CSAUDIT discrepancies.

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Topics

BeneficiariesEmployee retirement plansErroneous paymentsErrorsInteragency relationsQuestionable paymentsRetirement benefitsSocial security benefitsUnderpaymentsRailroad retirement